Gary May of the Ottawa Citizen has written an excellent article with advice for buying timeshare and timeshare resales. The article was printed in last week’s The Vancouver Sun, and covers 10 things to consider when you are ready to buy timeshare.

Here are a few of the reasons his timeshare advice is exemplary:

Gary May does not start or end his article with warnings about why it is a bad investment to buy timeshare. He seems to have a solid (and correct) grasp of the concept, that buying timeshare is no more about investment potential than buying a new car. You buy it to use it, not as a replacement, or even a supplement, to your financial investments.

He identifies that timeshare buyers have choices and options and that time is on their side. He counsels you to shop around and seriously evaluate your needs. How do you and your family vacation? Do you like to visit the same vacation destination every year, or do you like to explore new locations? He talks about maintenance fees, taxes, and timeshare exchange. All of which are very important to consider when you buy timeshare.

And on May’s list are two points, that are very important and resonate with great truth:

“Don’t be railroaded into buying something you aren’t sure about. If you go to a special promotion, you will be required to attend a demonstration. Consider this an education on the merits of timeshare. Don’t buy on a whim. Ask questions. Think it over. If you like what you see, bargain the price down. Never buy at the first price they offer.”

“Consider buying a timeshare from an owner: resales are everywhere since people’s lifestyles change. Resales can usually be purchased for far less than the original price and are listed on timeshare websites and in newspaper want ads.”

Answer to Your Questions about Buying Timeshare

On Sell My Timeshare NOW’s website we have a page - a long page - devoted to answering frequently asked questions about buying timeshare resales. We explain the difference in types of timeshare ownership, discuss banking timeshare weeks, and help you understand why timeshare purchased directly from a timeshare resort developer costs so much more than timeshare resales purchased from their current owners.

Timeshare ownership can be a great opportunity for you and your family to enjoy a lifetime of vacations. But like anything else, it should not be purchased in haste, nor should it be bought during a high-pressure sales pitch.

And for more on the subject of timeshares sold by high-pressure tactics, read the Timeshare Owners Blog tomorrow when we will be looking at a Mexico timeshares company that has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

J. W. Marriott Jr, the chairman and CEO of Marriott International Inc, in conjunction with Omar Al Futtaim, CEO of Al-Futtaim Group, has announced a joint venture agreement that will result in the building of Marriott Vacation Club Festival City timeshare resort in the United Arab Emeritus.

The new Marriott timeshare represents, according to ArabianBusiness.com, the first significant equity investment in a hospitality development in Dubai by a US-base global hospitality brand. It is the only equity based joint venture entered into by Al-Futtaim with a hospitality group at Dubai Festival City.

Al-Futtaim was quoted as saying, “We believe Marriott Vacation Club will singularly raise the bar and change the landscape of the hospitality sector in Dubai.”

Plans are for the Marriott timeshare resort to be constructed in four phases, and will include over 3500 timeshare units and timeshare suites when completed. The Marriott Vacation Club Festival City will be the largest timeshare resort connected to a regional shopping center in the United Arab Emirates. As the resort area develops, in addition to the Marriott timeshare, there will be 8 major luxury hotels, 2 boutique hotels, and over 100 restaurants, cafes, and bistros located within the residential and retail area along Dubai Creek and near the Festival Marina. The development is described as an, “elegantly chic, bustling waterfront urban community.”

Own Marriott Timeshare Today

Timeshare owners at Marriott Vacation Club Festival City will have exchange privileges within the worldwide network of Marriott timeshares. You can buy Marriott timeshare from the Marriott corporation, or you can take advantage of the excellent prices available on Marriott timeshare resales advertised by Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Currently Sell My Timeshare NOW has timeshare resales available at nearly 40 Marriott timeshare resorts in the US alone as well as the following international destinations:

• Marriott’s Aruba Ocean Club Timeshare Resales - Palm Beach, Aruba
• Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club Timeshare Resales - Palm Beach, Aruba
• Marriott’s Village d’Ile de France Timeshare Resales - Bailly Romainvilliers, France
• Marriott’s Club Son Antem Timeshare Resales - Mallorca, Spain
• Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort Timeshare Resales - Marbella, Spain
• Marriott’s Playa Andaluza Timeshare Resales - Marbella, Spain
• Marriott’s Phuket Beach Club Timeshare Resales - Phuket, Thailand
• 47 Park Street by Marriott Grand Residence Club Timeshare Resales - Mayfair, London, England

A Texas-based timeshare resales brokerage, that is a division of Stroman Realty, Inc., has released an interesting study on timeshare resales buying trends for transactions handled within their company. The study looked at timeshare sales based on the size of the timeshare unit, the location, and other factors that influence a consumer’s decision to buy timeshare. It also reported on trends that affect timeshare resales across the industry, such as why people resell timeshare or what marketing media best reaches potential timeshare buyers.

Like the research Sell My Timeshare NOW released earlier this year, both studies found that people don’t typically resell timeshare because they are unhappy with it, but more often because it no longer suits their lifestyle, needs, or the way they vacation.

One observation that came from this timeshare resales study is this, “As consumer internet usage has increased, the Timeshare Resale Industry has benefited significantly from the use of the Internet to advertise units for sale. This is because timeshare owners/sellers have never been able to use signage to help with their marketing due to resort restrictions. Since about 1995, the Internet has created an interactive growing conduit for timeshare property information utilized by buyers, wholesalers, brokers, and sellers. The Internet is the single largest factor that has improved the market for timeshare resales.”

Above all else, the study, like research developed for ARDA and research by timeshare developers, reinforces the idea that timeshare sales - both of new timeshare and timeshare resales - are on a very positive upward trend, and that consumer’s confidence in the timeshare or vacation ownership industry increases every year.

In other words, it is a good time to buy timeshare. And it is a good time to sell timeshare. Whatever your needs, at this point in your life, find a reliable, highly rated company to assist you and then move forward confidently with your timeshare transaction.

Earlier this month, Resort Condominiums International, known as RCI, announced an agreement with Al Ghaith Holdings regarding the Bavaria Executive Suites timeshare resort. Al Ghaith Holdings is a leading timeshare resort development company, based in Dubai. The new agreement will make the Bavaria Executive Suites timeshares part of RCI timeshare exchange.

RCI Timeshare Exchange Helps Shape the Face of Dubai Timeshare

RCI has played an integral role in bringing timeshare resorts and vacation ownership to Dubai. RCI, along with many timeshare developers has worked with regulatory agencies and lawmakers to assist in creating timeshare legislation that protects both the timeshare company and the timeshare buyer, while safeguarding Dubai’s cultural considerations and traditions. Nick Turner, managing director of Group RCI Middle East, commented on the forethought Dubai has demonstrated in preplanning its entry into the timeshare market, saying, “This aims to be well thought through and protects the interests of the consumer, developer, and brand of Dubai.”

The Bavaria Executive Suites will consist of two condominium towers, with a minimum of 450 one and two bedroom apartments. As the first timeshare resort on Shiekh Zayed Road, one tower will flank each side of the highway, giving the property prime access to Dubai’s new commercial and residential hub, and a location adjacent to Dubai Media City and the access route to the Palm Jumeirah. The timeshare resort will be conveniently close to the Mall of the Emirates, Jumeirah beach, golf courses, and many of the city’s attractions and business destinations.

The timeshare resort will include eight restaurants, sports centers, the newest Anagsana Spa, and a shopping arcade. As proof that the timeshare company hopes to attract both business travelers and vacationers, the Bavaria Executive Suites will include 40 fully equipped offices and a meeting center that can be configured to accommodate between 10 and 1000 business people.

The Future of Dubai Timeshare Sales

Dubai has aggressively committed to becoming a global destination for luxury vacations and tourism, yet has embraced timeshare real estate in a cautious and deliberate manner. Dubai is in the enviable position of being able to observe the smart moves and the errors made by other countries in regulating timeshare sales and timeshare resales and avoid mistakes others have made in the past.

People who want to buy timeshare or who are already timeshare owners should keep their eye on timeshare sales in Dubai…it could easily become one of the world’s top timeshare vacation destinations in the near future.

Apparently Disney Vacation Club Timeshare is trying to get the message across that they are not just about Disney vacations.

In an article published by the Orlando Sentinel on April 9, Jason Garcia writes about Disney’s new television commercials designed to promote timeshare sales, in which the actors focus on other vacation destinations before they get around to talking about the Disney theme parks. Now that is an interesting way to back into your timeshare sales pitch.

Disney Vacation Club Timeshare Advertising

The 60-second commercial, called “Little Travelers,” opens with children talking about all the places they have visited with their families, through Disney Vacation Club timeshare membership. The children talk about Costa Rica, the Grand Canyon, and England while the camera rolls on pictures of the Venice canals and the Eiffel Tower. Eventually, of course, the commercial gets around to talking about Disney theme parks.

The strategy is to eliminate any objection that buying Disney Vacation Club timeshare limits you to vacationing only at Disney properties. The marketing minds behind Disney Vacation Club timeshare want consumers to understand that Disney timeshare is owned in the form of timeshare points, which can be exchanged at hundreds of non-Disney resorts around the world.

Morningstar Inc., lodging industry analyst, Jeremy Glaser says, “I think when people look at discretionary spending, time shares are places that are pretty easy for some people to cut out.”

Yet just as we are hearing from so many timeshare resort developers, Disney Vacation Club timeshare’s director of marketing, Sylvia Woolfork says that they have seen no slowdown so far. According to quotes in the Orlando Sentinel, Woolfork says, “We’ve actually seen some pretty healthy trends in our business.”

Opportunities in Disney Vacation Club Timeshare Resales

To learn more about the opportunity to become a Disney Vacation Club timeshare owner, by purchasing a Disney timeshare resale, visit Sell My Timeshare NOW.

There are Disney Vacation Club timeshare resales available at these resorts:

• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas Resales
• Disney’s BoardWalk Villas Resales
• Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort Resales
• Disney’s Old Key West Resort Resales
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa Resales
• Disney’s Vero Beach Resort Resales

Earlier this week, I wrote in the Timeshare Owners Blog about a predicted future escalation in global tourism leading to a shortage of hotel and timeshare resorts. Starwood Hotels and Timeshare resorts is just one of several hoteliers and developers that seem to think such predictions are solid.

In a multi-year strategy to revitalize the brand name of Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Starwood begins this week on an aggressive expansion plan calling for 54 hotels and 20,000 guest rooms to be added to the Sheraton brand by this time next year. According to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Inc, the company will be spending approximately $2 billion just on North American properties. The plans include $1.3 billion in renovations and $400 million in key brand initiatives and upgrades at 100 US hotels.

Starwood’s official news release says that Sheraton is already the company’s largest and most global brand, and that they plan to increase this by opening one hotel every 12 days during 2008. Target markets include Denver, Minneapolis, Dallas, Phoenix, and Washington, DC. Globally, expansion plans include Egypt, China, Ireland, and Argentina.

Hoyt Harper II, senior vice president for Sheraton Hotels and Timeshare Resorts says, “Over the next several years, Sheraton’s footprint will become even more prominent, and as we grow, we will leverage Starwoods’ proven history of building great lifestyle brands to enhance the entire guest experience.”

Ready to Buy Sheraton Timeshare?

If you have ever considered buying Sheraton timeshare, there has never been a better time. You would become a Sheraton timeshare owner just as the company is putting billions of dollars back into their hotels and resorts - think of it as, getting in at the right time. And buying Sheraton timeshare from Starwood is not the only way to become a Sheraton timeshare owner. There are incredible opportunities to buy Sheraton timeshare resales, and bypass paying the developer’s upfront marketing costs. Visit Sell My Timeshare NOW today to learn more.

Here’s a YouTube video about the Starwood Spa collection that is reason enough to become a Starwood timeshare owner.

Recent Timeshare Owners Blog posts about Starwood timeshares include:

• Starwood Will Be Selling Timeshare from New Sales Galleries
• Starwood Timeshare Opens The Phoenician Residences

This month’s edition of the Harvard Business Review included a very interesting article about the future of tourism both in the US and internationally. With the dark clouds of recession never far from view, it is very good news to hear knowledgeable experts forecasting positive trends in travel and vacationing.

Paul F. Nunes is an executive research fellow with the Accenture Institute for High Performance Business in Boston and London-based Mark Spelman is the global managing director of Accenture’s strategy practice. Together, they researched and wrote, “The Tourism Time Bomb”, which appeared in the Harvard Business Review’s April 2008 issue.

To understand their predictions, you have to start with the fact that they are forecasting the global emergence of a new middle class who will be shopping for vacations and travel. To quote their words, “Indian call-center employees, Russian petrochemical engineers, Chinese middle managers, and Brazilian salespeople are already scouring the web for deals on trips.”

Add to this list the changes in Cuba, (discussed in Saturday’s Timeshare Owners Blog) the American baby boomer, who is relatively insulated from the current US economic situation, Canadians who are enjoying a strong Looney, and other populations worldwide who are or will in the future be spending their money on travel and vacations. Suddenly, it begins to make sense that the United Nations is projecting that the annual number of international tourist visits will nearly double and reach 1.6 billion by the year 2020.

Could A “Bomb” Explode and Shower Us with Timeshare Resorts?

Nunes and Spelmen see three scenarios that could occur because of a surge in vacationing or what they call, “the tourism time bomb”.

The first possibility is that demand for hotel rooms in popular venues will outstrip supply. They go on to explain that the lodging crunch could become so tight, a new type of scalper could emerge, selling hotel rooms, air fares, and other travel related items at whatever top dollar the market will bear.

If this seems hard to imagine, remember that it is already happening in some segments of the travel industry, with the 2007 American Express Global Business Travel Report forecasting an 11 to 14 percent increase in the cost of travel for 2008. Can you envision a future where hotel room nights are pedaled at black market prices?

What A Travel Boom Will Mean to Timeshare Owners

If the predictions of Nunes, Spelman, American Express, or the United Nations turn out to be even halfway correct, then I can only see this as great news for timeshare owners. Timeshare owners will be ahead of the game because they own their vacation or travel accommodations, at a locked in price. These timeshare units will have been purchased at pre-escalation prices and if they were wisely bought as timeshare resales, then the timeshare owner will be even further ahead. When and if the timeshare owner decides to sell timeshare as a resale, he or she may find that the market has become extremely “seller friendly”.

The Tourism Time Bomb definitely gives us food for thought and paints the picture of a future environment that is beneficial for timeshare owners and timeshare real estate in general.

Check in on tomorrow’s Timeshare Owners Blog. I will share further information from this fascinating report and look at the other two travel industry scenarios the authors project.

CNNMoney.com reported last week that despite the fact that hoteliers in general are feeling the pinch of the tight economy, hotel companies that have a timeshare sales component are doing just fine.

Backing up this theory are strong financial reports from timeshare companies, including Wyndham Worldwide, with fourth-quarter 2007 timeshare vacation revenue up 4 percent to $576 million and Marriott timeshare sales and services revenue up 2 percent in the same quarter.

Here’s What Leading Financial Analysts Said about Timeshare Sales

Last month, Goldman Sachs analyst Steven Kent toured Florida timeshare resorts belonging to Marriott, Starwood, and Wyndham. CNNMoney.com quoted him as saying, “We came away with a renewed sense belief that timeshare sales should be able to muscle through the current difficult economic environment, given a proactive sales model and the compelling quality of the product.”

Robert LaFleur, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group, reportedly said that timeshare sales remain a very profitable business and at the same time afford a way for hoteliers to extend their brand. But perhaps LaFeur’s most quotable observation relates specifically to why people continue to buy timeshare despite challenges in the US economy. La Feur said, “It’s (buying timeshare) like going to Costco and buying vacation in bulk.”

No Mistake About It: Timeshare Sales, NOT Vacation Home Sales

If you don’t think consumers clearly understand the difference between the value of buying timeshare vacation ownership property in this economic market and buying sole ownership vacation homes, think again. Vacation home sales (sole ownership properties) dropped 30.6 percent in 2007, from their 2006 all-time record high.

Timeshare ownership…for millions of satisfied people, it’s a great vacation solution no matter what the economy.

The 2008 ARDA Convention & Exposition will be held next month, April 6-10, at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. This is the top event in the resort and timeshare industry and it will draw some 5000 attendees from more than 40 countries worldwide.

Speakers at the ARDA Convention

Each year the ARDA Convention & Exposition offers resort and timeshare professionals the most up-to-date information on services and new directions within the industry. For the 2008 convention, Rick Barrera will be the keynote speaker. Barrera is a nationally recognized speaker, marketing consultant and acclaimed author. He is probably best known for his unique approach to brand building and holistic customer service. Barrera’s strategies can be seen in use today by such business giants as Google, Hummer, and Tivo.

In tomorrow’s Timeshare Owners Blog, I will be sharing information about a few of the ARDA Convention’s other speakers and panelists, including the panel on which I will be presenting. Here is also a link to Sell My Timeshare NOW’s most recent press release about the ARDA Convention.

Entertainment at the ARDA Convention

As if just being in Las Vegas isn’t entertaining enough, the ARDA Convention includes a performance by Terry Fator. If you are not familiar with this multi-talented entertainer, then the idea of watching a ventriloquist may not seem too exciting.

Think again. Terry Fator, winner of last year’s American’s Got Talent competition on NBC, is one of the single most entertaining, genuinely talented performers today.

I have attached a YouTube video of Fator during his first televised appearance on the, America’s Got Talent competition. Once you watch this first video, you may want to go back and view the many others available on Fator’s website or on YouTube - he is guaranteed to brighten your day.

Last week I posted a blog called, Timesharing as a Concept Will Increase Timesharing as a Practice. And then, as if on cue, I ran across this bit of timely information reinforcing the idea that both timeshare ownership and fractional ownership will grow, simply because we, as a culture, are increasingly integrating the idea of shared ownership into our lifestyles and mindsets.

Last summer, a London-based company, called Fractional Life, held their first Fractional Ownership Expo. The alfresco-style exhibition was hosted in the city-center of London to introduce people to the diverse opportunities in fractional or timeshare ownership. The event was such a success that the company currently is hard at work preparing for Fraction Ownership Expo, 2008, to be held next month, again in downtown London.

Fractional Ownership Expo 2008

Fractional Life describes the expo by saying, “…the event caters for the growing number of people who want to enjoy a lifestyle of luxury items and experiences - without the ties, responsibilities and capital outlay of a complete purchase.” …hummm, sounds like timeshare to me.

Fractional Ownership Expo’s flagship sponsors are the Oceanico Group, a leader in luxury four and five-star residential and holiday homes offering high quality golf or beach amenities and, IFA Hotels & Resorts, an internationally recognized leader in the development of premier mixed-use hotel and tourism resort projects and luxury leisure services. Although the heart and soul of the fractional ownership event centers on shared vacation ownership property - timeshare real estate - exhibitors will include companies dealing in fractional ownership of classic and luxury cars, boats, yachts, aircraft and jets, wines, sporting passes and even handbags.

All of which proves once again, that the concept of timesharing really makes a lot of sense, even if I don’t personally understand exactly how you timeshare a bottle of wine.